Clock circuit and method for providing an electronic device with an adjustable clock signal

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9996102-B2
Application number	US-201013810523-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 20, 2010
Priority date	Jul 20, 2010
Publication date	Jun 12, 2018
Grant date	Jun 12, 2018

Abstract

This invention relates to a clock circuit for providing an electronic device with a clock signal having an adjustable clock frequency. The clock circuit is adapted to receive information regarding a context level of the electronic device and to dynamically control the clock frequency of the clock signal according to the context level. The dynamical control of the clock circuit output frequency based on the context level enables automated power-to-performance control of the electronic device. The invention also relates to an electronic device comprising a context setting unit adapted to set a context level in which the electronic device is operated and a clock circuit. Furthermore, it relates to a method of providing an electronic device with a clock signal having an adjustable clock frequency, wherein a clock circuit receives information regarding a context level of the electronic device; and wherein the clock circuit dynamically controls the clock frequency of the clock signal according to the context level.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A clock circuit for providing an electronic device with a clock signal having an adjustable clock frequency,
the clock circuit to receive first information regarding a first interrupt level of the electronic device, and to receive second information regarding a second interrupt level of the electronic device;
a hardware wrapper of the clock circuit to be enabled or disabled based on a control signal;
in response to the hardware wrapper being disabled, the clock circuit to control the clock frequency of the clock signal according to a default divisor value; and
in response to the hardware wrapper being enabled, the clock circuit to dynamically control the clock frequency of the clock signal according to the first information regarding the first interrupt level and to the second information regarding the second interrupt level, wherein the clock frequency of the clock signal is selected from a postscaler register based on an interrupt level.

2. The clock circuit of claim 1 , wherein the clock circuit comprises a clock module having an oscillator unit adapted to provide a first signal having a first frequency as a basis for the clock signal.

3. The clock circuit of claim 1 , wherein the clock circuit comprises at least one postscaler adapted to modify an input signal with a first frequency to provide a modified output signal having a second frequency as a basis for the clock signal, wherein the second frequency may be different from the first frequency.

4. The clock circuit of claim 3 , wherein the clock circuit is adapted to control the postscaler to control the clock frequency.

5. The clock circuit of claim 1 , wherein the clock circuit comprises a core-clock postscaler adapted to provide a core-clock frequency and a bus-clock postscaler adapted to provide a bus-clock frequency.

6. The clock circuit of claim 5 , wherein the clock circuit is adapted to control the core-clock postscaler to control the core-clock frequency.

7. The clock circuit of claim 5 , wherein the clock circuit is adapted to synchronize the bus-clock postscaler and the core-clock postscaler when the bus-clock postscaler is updated.

8. The clock circuit of claim 1 , wherein the information regarding the interrupt level is information regarding an interrupt level the electronic device switches or switched to.

9. An electronic device comprising
a context setting unit for setting a context level in which the electronic device is operated; and a
control circuit according to one of claim 1 .

10. A method of providing an electronic device with a clock signal having an adjustable clock frequency, the method comprising:
receiving, at a clock circuit, first information regarding a first interrupt level of the electronic device;
receiving, at the clock circuit, second information regarding a second interrupt level of the electronic device;
enabling or disabling a hardware wrapper within the clock circuit based on a control signal;
in response to the hardware wrapper being disabled, controlling the clock frequency of the clock signal according to a default divisor value; and
in response to the hardware wrapper being enabled, dynamically controlling, at the clock circuit, the clock frequency of the clock signal according to the first information regarding the first interrupt level and to the second information regarding the second interrupt level, wherein the clock frequency of the clock signal is selected from a value of postscaler register provided to the hardware wrapper based on an interrupt level.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the clock circuit provides a bus-clock signal with a bus-clock frequency and a core-clock signal with a core-clock frequency and the core-clock frequency is controlled according to the information regarding the context level.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the information regarding the interrupt level is information defining interrupt level the electronic device switches or switched to.

13. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
modifying, at a postscaler, an input signal with a first frequency to provide a modified output signal having a second frequency as a basis for the clock signal, wherein the second frequency may be different from the first frequency.

14. A clock circuit comprising:
a core-clock postscaler to provide a core-clock frequency based on a clock signal having an adjustable clock provided an electronic device; and
a hardware wrapper configured to communicate with the core-clock postscaler, the hardware wrapper to be enabled or disabled based on a control signal, in response to the hardware wrapper being enabled, the hardware wrapper to: receive first information regarding a first interrupt level of the electronic device; dynamically control the clock frequency of the clock signal according to the first information regarding the first interrupt level; receive second information regarding a second interrupt level of the electronic device; and dynamically control the clock frequency of the clock signal according to the second information regarding the second interrupt level, wherein the clock frequency of the clock signal is selected from a postscaler register based on an interrupt level, and wherein a change of an output of the core-clock postscaler is changed before a process enters an interrupt routine;
in response to the hardware wrapper being disabled, the core-clock postscaler to provide the core-clock frequency based on a default divisor value.

15. The clock circuit of claim 14 , further comprising:
a clock module having an oscillator unit adapted to provide a first signal having a first frequency as a basis for the clock signal.

16. The clock circuit of claim 14 , further comprising:
a bus-clock postscaler configured to communicate with the core-clock postscaler, the bus-clock postscaler to provide a bus-clock frequency that is synchronous with the core-clock frequency.

17. The clock circuit of claim 13 , wherein the core-clock postscaler to modify an input signal with a first frequency to provide a modified output signal having a second frequency as a basis for the clock signal, wherein the second frequency may be different from the first frequency.

18. The clock circuit of claim 14 , wherein information regarding the interrupt level is which interrupt is the current interrupt of a plurality of interrupts each associated with a different interrupt level.

19. The clock circuit of claim 1 , wherein the clock frequency of the clock signal is changed in response to every time a change occurs in the interrupt level.

20. The clock circuit of claim 1 , wherein the interrupt level defines a priority level of an interruption of a normal application.

Assignees

• Mienkina Martin
• Nxp Usa Inc

Inventors

• Mienkina Martin

Classifications

• G06F1/08 Primary

  Clock generators with changeable or programmable clock frequency · CPC title

• G06F1/324

  by lowering clock frequency · CPC title

• Y02D10/126

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• Y02D10/00

  Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management · CPC title